[Born at Cos, in the Ægean Sea, about B.C. 460. Died about 357. Aged 104.]
The great fame acquired by Hippocrates, would seem to have been won by a steadfast adherence to the sagacity of common sense. He had no chemical knowledge, and his acquaintance with anatomy appears to have been scanty and uncertain; yet, knowing how to turn a rare experience to account, and confining his operations mainly to the watching and assisting of Nature, he succeeded in obtaining credit for superhuman skill. His nephew, who is reputed to have possessed almost equal merit with his uncle, was murdered in a fit of jealousy, by Hippocrates, who shortly afterwards fell a sacrifice to the torments of remorse. A great number of works are extant under his name, but most of them were written by his disciples.
[From the marble in the Louvre, which has been verified by a medal bearing the name of Hippocrates, and showing a perfect resemblance to the head. There are several busts of Hippocrates in existence—one in the Capitoline Museum, another at Florence, and two in the Louvre.]
15. Isocrates. Rhetorician.
[Born at Athens, B.C. 436. Died B.C. 338. Aged 98.]
It is said that Isocrates was the first man to describe the true value and objects of oratory. His language is the purest Attic; his style, which he elaborated with great pains, elegant and polished. As teacher of rhetoric, he became the instructor of the chief youths of his time. He composed several discourses on great political occasions, and amassed considerable wealth. He had throughout life a constitutional timidity, and a weakness of voice that prevented him from speaking in the assemblies of the people. Socrates had been one of his masters. His character appears to have been spotless.
[From the bust in the Villa Albani at Rome, bearing the name of Isocrates. A statue of him was sculptured by Leochares for the temple of Eleusis, and another is described by Pausanias as in the temple of Jupiter Olympius, which statue is spoken of by Christodorus, as being at Constantinople in his time.]
16. Plato. Greek Philosopher.
[Born at Athens, B.C. 430. Died B.C. 347. Aged 83.]
The most illustrious amongst the disciples of Socrates. The doctrines of the great teacher have descended to us chiefly through the writings of this eloquent hearer. Whence, a singular and inextricable conflict. The sturdy, keen, practical plain sense of the master, and the soaring, brilliant imagination, and subtly-dividing wit of the pupil, have come down to us mingled ever in the same composition. In these extraordinary dialogues, which display the spoken Greek of Athens in its utmost purity, beauty, and melody, how much is Plato’s?—how much is of Socrates? The two busts may go as far as any other authorities, in affording the almost discretionary reply. The lip on which, whilst in the cradle, tradition says that the bee settled—signifying the sweetness of the speech which should flow from it—is before us, in part of the answer. Plato was, in his earlier life, a poet, but gave his poetical compositions, amongst which are mentioned an epic poem and a tragedy, to the flames. He excelled in bodily exercises, being distinguished as a wrestler. He travelled much in the quest of knowledge. Like his illustrious preceptor, he taught that wisdom, under which we must comprise goodness, is the attribute of the Godhead,—that philosophy is an intellectual necessity, and, as the fountain of virtue, which it thus includes, the most estimable of all the goods within the reach of man. Abstruse and sublime, seeking to rest science and morals on an immutable basis, Plato trains the intellect more than he teaches. In reading his writings, we enter the Socratic school as hearers, as disputants. The Socrates, who constantly leads the discussion, is rather the presiding Spirit, than the Man. We come out, whatsoever else, worshipping students of the True, of the Fair, of the Good.